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50 Years of 'Europa CEPT' Stamps 1956-2006

Gibraltar celebrates 50 years of Europa stamps. The stamp depicts the first official Gibraltar Europa stamp from 1979. The ‘coup de grace’ is the use of gold, embossed and foil-blocked over the stars finishing off the issue beautifully.The idea of issuing a ‘joint stamp emission’ was born in 1952. The motive was to “symbolise a community of interest and objectives”. Six countries, the same countries that signed the Treaty of Rome on the 25th of March 1957 (Belgium, France, West-Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands) were also the first six countries to release their first set of Europa stamps on the 15th September 1956 (13 stamps).A ‘common design’ by the French artist, Daniel Gonzague, was used by all countries. This was a tower formed by the 6 letters of the Latin word for Europe: Europa. In 1974 the ‘common theme’ system replaced the ‘common design’ which had been used since 1956.A theme is chosen for all countries to issue their stamps under the ‘Europa’ banner. ‘Gastronomy’ is the theme for 2005; ‘The integration as seen by young people’ for 2006 and ‘100 years of scouting’ for 2007.